A little more than 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, universities in Eastern and Central Europe are keen to increase their international profiles to compete with their Western counterparts.
With the advantage of learning from previous efforts at other European institutions, university leaders from across the region were given tips and tools to internationalise by leading experts at the Leadership Forum in Higher Education in Warsaw last month.
Fourteen speakers gave insight on the government and management of internationalisation, but most agreed that an institution’s financial strategy is becoming increasingly more important.
“I think the speakers from Western cultures were happy to see this kind of thinking is happening in this part of the world”
“Financial strategies are beginning to look more and more like a business plan,” noted Anna Mauranen, Vice-Rector at the University of Helsinki.
However, Sijbolt Noorda, President of the Observatory Magna Charta, added that “the best universities are business in style but public in spirit”.
In order to successfully internationalise, Noorda urged leaders to have three elements in place: time, backing from the university community and committed leadership.
“It’s wiser to start at two or three spots in a university than taking a wider approach,” he said, adding that growth strategies could be planted with staff members who already have international linkages.
“Concentrate on potential successes,” he told delegates from Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Ukraine and Estonia.
Speaking on the student experience, Gudrun Paulsdottir, Senior Consultant with international education consultancy firm iE&D Solutions in the Netherlands, commented that “in order to be a fully international institution, administrative staff mobility must be part of your strategy”.
Meanwhile, Hans de Wit, Director of the Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation at the Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore in Milan reminded delegates to not only focus on the international but also the intercultural.
“We need to talk about attracting talent in our own immigrant communities as well,” he said.
The 50 delegates were also advised to invest in research to measure the impact of internationalisation activity as well as increasing bursaries to attract top talent.
Justyna Gieżyńska of Studybility talks about the event to The PIE News
The two-day event was organised by Studybility and sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Studybility CEO, Justyna Giezynska, said the first-time event inspired good discussions between university leaders from both sides of the Soviet divide.
“I think the speakers from Western cultures were happy to see this kind of thinking is happening in this part of the world,” she commented.
